World's Richest 80 People Own Same Amount As World's Bottom 50% By Eric Zuesse. By Eric Zuesse 09 May, 2015Countercurrents.org Oxfam's recent report, "WEALTH: HAVING IT ALL AND WANTING MORE” contains shocking figures that the press haven't sufficiently publicized; so, the findings and the reliability of their sources will be discussed here. The results will then be related to the central political debate now going on in the U.S. Presidential contests for 2016, which is about equality and inequality. First, the findings: 1. 2. Now, the sources: These data are calculated from Forbes magazine, regarding the world's richest individuals, and from the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook 2014, regarding the global wealth-distribution. The source on the richest 80: The Forbes list is one of two such lists, the other being Bloomberg.
Furthermore, Newsweek on March 2nd headlined “Why Putin Isn't on ‘Forbes' Billionaires List,” and reported that,“Forbes excludes members of royal families and ‘dictators who derive their fortunes entirely as a result of their position of power.' Wealth Inequality in America. Two Homeless People Freeze To Death Just Miles From The White House. By Scott Keyes "Two Homeless People Freeze To Death Just Miles From The White House" A homeless man rests on a bench in Washington, D.C. CREDIT: Shawn Davis Just a couple miles from where lawmakers set the course on everything from taxes to the availability of housing vouchers for low-income Americans, two homeless people were found dead Wednesday morning, with hypothermia being cited as the likely cause.
Washington D.C. had made an effort to try to protect its homeless residents from dangerous weather this year, with new innovations such as “warming buses,,” city buses that were parked across the city with the heat on for those in need. The buses were quite popular; hundreds of homeless people could be found on board when temperatures dropped, in part because shelters in D.C. have been overflowing. However, when temperatures turned unseasonably cold on Tuesday, many were caught off guard. (HT: @gzornick) This Is The Most Depressing Version Of Google Maps I’ve Ever Seen. Colder colors mean wealthier neighborhoods; warmer colors mean poorer ones. Whoever thought segregation could be this hypnotic, am I right? Here are some cities (US only): Los Angeles, California: Click image to Zoom Cleveland, Ohio: Houston, Texas: Washington, D.C Detroit, Michigan: Click image to Zoom Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Atlanta, Georgia: Las Vegas, Nevada: If you don't see your city, check out Rich Blocks, Poor Blocks to find it.
Social Inequality. 1M2rgVL. Thomas Piketty. 5 Hypocritical Justifications the 1% Use to Justify the America's Staggering Inequality. The duplicity seems endless as the world's richest people rationalize the staggering wealth disparity. By Paul Buchheit February 25, 2014 "Information Clearing House - "AlternNet" - The hypocrisy is spread evenly among corporations, Congress, and free-market apologists, all of whom insult and imperil average Americans with their double standards.
Here are some of the worst: 1. Poor People Just Need to Get a Job. This may be the greatest hypocrisy of them all, because it directly impacts so many Americans. But they don't provide that fair shot. Congress is not the only hypocrite here. 2. That "government is the problem" sentiment goes back to Ronald Reagan, whose post-recession spending actually increased four times faster than Obama's. Food stamps have been cut to reduce government spending. 3. Milton Friedman said that in 1990.
The business-aligned media seems to agree that we're all together in a yacht. The 'fruits' of economic progress are not limited to money. 4. 5. Income Inequality In The US And Its Shameful Impact By Fazal M. Kamal. Income Inequality In The US And Its Shameful Impact By Fazal M. Kamal 14 February, 2014Countercurrents.org For a country that's now producing the almost inconceivable quantum computer---the so-called Infinity Machine---and which has the world's largest economy, and in brief is the richest nation in the known universe, it isn't merely a crying shame but downright unjust that hundreds of thousands of its citizens should be in such an economic state that they simply cannot afford to have health insurance.
According to findings of a survey, for instance, in which nearly 10,000 people age 20 and up participated and reported having one or more chronic illnesses like cancer, asthma, emphysema or a psychiatric illness “23 percent took their medication less often than prescribed because of the cost, 19 percent reported difficulty affording food and 11 percent said they were having trouble paying for both food and medications.
This, however, is only one small part of the problem. Printer-Friendly Page. Bombshell New Book Argues That Capitalism and Democracy Don't Mix | Blog, What We're Reading. Few books have been met with as much anticipation at Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century. A reviewer in the Journal of Economic Thinking declares it “one of the watershed books in economic thinking.” Piketty, an economist at the Paris School of Economics, is well known for his work on inequality — much of what we know about American inequality is based on a database he developed with Emmanuel Saez of UC Berkeley. The book has been available in French for several months, and the English translation, by Arthur Goldhammer, is due out in March.
Its release is expected to set off a firestorm in our economic discourse. Thomas Edsall previewed the book in Tuesday’s New York Times. Edsall: Read the rest at The New York Times » Capitalism vs. Democracy. Thomas Piketty’s new book, “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” described by one French newspaper as a “a political and theoretical bulldozer,” defies left and right orthodoxy by arguing that worsening inequality is an inevitable outcome of free market capitalism. Piketty, a professor at the Paris School of Economics, does not stop there. He contends that capitalism’s inherent dynamic propels powerful forces that threaten democratic societies. Capitalism, according to Piketty, confronts both modern and modernizing countries with a dilemma: entrepreneurs become increasingly dominant over those who own only their own labor. In Piketty’s view, while emerging economies can defeat this logic in the near term, in the long run, “when pay setters set their own pay, there’s no limit,” unless “confiscatory tax rates” are imposed.
Photo “I am hesitant to call Thomas Piketty’s new book Capital in the 21st Century one of the best books in economics written in the past several decades. Fight Disparity: Dream Of Davos Elites By Farooque Chowdhury. Fight Disparity: Dream Of Davos Elites By Farooque Chowdhury 25 January, 2014Countercurrents.org Now the Davos elites have “raised” the issue of rich-poor divide. The World Economic Forum (WEF) has said that growing rich-poor income gap is the biggest risk the world is facing for the next decade. Pope Francis told Davos to fight inequality, hunger. But, Mr.
In its annual Global Risks 2014 report, the WEF said the income disparity was the most likely risk to cause an impact on a global scale in the next decade. They are “searching” answer to the question: How to spread the wealth? But, it’s a riddle-impossible to solve within the present structure. So, the elites gathered in their annual moot at Davos – the WEF – are aware of the danger of income inequality. Inequality, the world system’s “gift” to humanity, is not only a process active in poor countries.
Gates gospel However, Microsoft founder Mr. In his 25-page annual newsletter, published on January 21, 2014, Mr. Mr. Mr. The inverse. David Brooks' Utter Ignorance About Inequality. Source: Robert Reich Blog David Brooks(image by LA Progressive) Occasionally David Brooks, who personifies the oxymoron "conservative thinker" better than anyone I know, displays such profound ignorance that a rejoinder is necessary lest his illogic permanently pollute public debate. Such is the case with his New York Times column last Friday, arguing that we should be focusing on the "interrelated social problems of the poor" rather than on inequality, and that the two are fundamentally distinct.
Baloney. First, when almost all the gains from growth go to the top, as they have for the last 30 years, the middle class doesn't have the purchasing power necessary for buoyant growth. Second, when the middle class is stressed, it has a harder time being generous to those in need. Third, America's shrinking middle class also hobbles upward mobility. Hogwash. On Income Inequality and Economic Growth. Recently, a polling of some economists on the nagging poor performance of the U.S. economy concluded that the source of the problem is growing income inequality. Paul Krugman made the case that a shrinking economic pie and a declining share of that pie have contributed to the rise in income inequality. And Stiglitz ( CommonDreams ) faults a weak middle class unable to support aggregate spending.
He refers to "the hollowing of the middle class in the 1970s," which has hurt tax revenues. We now also have income inequality, which often leads to economic instability. This is the result of government policies that adversely affect a more equal distribution of income. Among them are cuts in marginal top tax rates, persistent unemployment, and the weakening of unions (through the implementation of right-to-work laws). Income inequality refers to differences in the distribution of the economic pie among groups (households or individuals) within the population. Cuts in Top Marginal Tax Rates. Income Redistribution's Logical Conclusion Is Communism. The Developing New American Caste System. - Advertisement - America is believed by the rest of the world to be the land of opportunity and unimpeded upward mobility. It is where people from all walks of life, backgrounds, races and color can make the best of their opportunities and talents.
America attracted people from all over the world to achieve, discover, innovate and improve their lives, and this helped create the greatest society ever built by man. It used to be that in America you could make a future for yourself no matter who your parents were, what your religion or race is. Owditch (or Water) Brahmin-- part of the caste system(image by SMU Central University Libraries) DMCA Unfortunately this is becoming less and less so. Wealth inequality is dividing our one United States into two Americas: one that is rich and in control and one that is poor and helpless. The new American Caste System is self-perpetuating. Many reasons underlie this developing new Caste System in America. "Jobs or Inequality"? That's No Choice at All.
January 4, 2014 By Richard (RJ) Eskow Inequality is the result of economic forces such as increased financial speculation, financialization of economic profits, deregulation, trade policy, tax breaks, and other government policies which favor the wealthy and corporate interests. These forces have also led to today's high levels of unemployment and poverty. What's the economic issue we should focus on -- jobs, or inequality? But some of the folks at the Washington Post's "WonkBlog" are having none of it. Bright Future Then Dylan Matthews, a staff reporter on the team (and creator of the highly addictive "Knowmore" site) used a hypothetical scenario to challenge the importance of inequality.
Matthews imagines a future America where poverty, hunger, and homelessness are eliminated; unemployment's below 4 percent; and GDP and median wages keep growing. "If that sounds preposterous," writes Matthews, "then maybe it's because you don't actually think inequality is our biggest problem. Ralph Nader : The Wild and Cruel Gap Between Debtors and Creditors. The Wild and Cruel Gap Between Debtors and Creditors By Ralph Nader December 14, 2013 "Information Clearing House - The word “inequality” is much in vogue these days. We hear almost daily about the inequality of wealth, income and wages between the richest top 2 or 3 percent of people and the majority of the country’s wage earners. But not much attention is given and not many marches and other protests are addressing the huge inequalities between creditors and debtors. Of course the aforementioned inequalities, especially of wages and income, worsen the plight of individual debtors.
One more distinction needs to be made – that between corporate debtors who receive many favored legal entitlements (even in bankruptcy) and individual debtors who are slammed and harassed by debt collectors. Start with the Federal Reserve’s low-interest policy of the last five years with no end in sight. The situation is bad and getting worse. A split U.S. What's your response? Economic inequality - Curiyo.com. Sociální nerovnost. Vedle nerovnosti vymezené například rozdílným vlastnictvím i vzděláním existuje také nerovnost v šancích něčeho ve společnosti dosáhnout. V 60. letech 20. století americký sociolog Gerhard Lenski přišel s tezí, že nerovnost mezi lidmi v moderní společnosti je složena ze 3 obecných dimenzí: majetek, tedy bohatství měřené velikostí příjmuvzdělání, tedy sociální status měřený jako výkon určitého povolánímoc, tedy schopnost ovládat a ovlivňovat druhé Reference[editovat | editovat zdroj] Odmaturuj ze společenských věd, Didaktis 2004 Související články[editovat | editovat zdroj]
Printing: Economic Inequality: 5 Personal Actions. December 6, 2013 By Bob Burnett The United States is experiencing unprecedented income inequality. It's not only affecting the lives of millions of Americans, but it's the root cause of political polarization that has paralyzed the Federal government. Here are 5 actions you can take to address economic inequality.
In 2011, the Congressional Budget Office found that between 1979 and 2007, "After-tax income for the highest-income households grew more than it did for any other group" 275 percent for the top 1 percent of households, 65 percent for the next 19 percent, just under 40 percent for the next 60 percent, and 18 percent for the bottom 20 percent. " This >video summarizes the problem. In a recent issue of THE NEW YORKER, Harvard Historian Jill Lepore analyzed political polarization, concluding, "Polarization in Congress maps onto one measure better than any other: economic inequality. " 1. 2. 3. Economic inequality. Sociální nerovnost.